This excerpt is taken from the complete review that appears in the June 2015 issue, which can be purchased here.

Jazz Drummer’s Workshop

Elvin Jones–Style Triplet Fills

Part 2: Orchestrating Accent Patterns

by John Xepoleas

Welcome to our second lesson covering triplet fills based on the playing of jazz great Elvin Jones, who made a huge impact on drumming as part of legendary saxophonist John Coltrane’s quartet in the 1960s. The goal with this series is to show you how to construct high-energy fills like those Elvin played, in an effort to take your drumming to a new level. I’ll teach you his sticking patterns and then show you how apply them to the drumset. Check out a video demo of the exercises contained in the article below.